Measuring resident place attachment in a World Cultural Heritage tourism context: the case of Hoi An (Vietnam)

Human attachment to place has been widely discussed in the tourism literature to explain the attitudes and behaviours of tourists towards destinations. Less is known about the place attachments of local residents and this may be particularly important where tourism impacts places of cultural significance. This paper examines how the attachment to place of local residents has been structured in the context of a World Cultural Heritage area. Data collection was conducted through two stages involving 38 semi-structured interviews followed by a survey with 405 local residents in Hoi An Ancient Town (Vietnam). The results revealed that local residents developed a positive and close attachment with the heritage of their hometown. Resident place attachment was found to be an overarching concept represented by the correlated dimensions of place affect, place identity and place dependence. The scale developed in the study can be used to measure the role of World Cultural Heritage status in the formation of relationships between residents and tourist places.